AT just 26 years old, Steven Hamill had to face a distressing and excruciatingly painful nightmare.
What started as a sudden but strange swelling that he desperately tried to ignore ended with surgeons removing half his penis.
Steven Hamill, 26, woke up one day only to find the head of his penis was swollen well beyond its normal size Credit: Supplied
Steven has bravely opened up about the penile cancer and impact it has had on his life Credit: Supplied
Nicknamed “Stumpy” by his mates, he is sharing his experience of a cancer that doctors told him was “impossible” for his age, to urge men to talk about their health.
Penile cancer is diagnosed in about 820 men each year in the UK, out of more than 400,000 cancer cases in total, with symptoms easily mistaken for an STI or ignored due to embarrassment.
These include swelling, discharge, pain, or a lump, ulcer or rash on the penis, usually the foreskin.
Figures from the Urology Foundation suggest 90 per cent of men know nothing about penile cancer.
Steven says his love life has improved since the drastic surgery Credit: Supplied
Steven has had relationships since his op, with one that leading to the birth of his son, 4 Credit: Supplied
Steven, a 34-year-old dad who works in the food industry in Liverpool, is breaking ranks to talk honestly about what it’s really like to have the disease, including the question on everyone’s lips – can he still have sex?
The answer is yes, and he says it is better than it ever was.
But he adds: “If you want to do a horror movie for men, you do the story of my life.”
Steven says his symptoms started suddenly one morning in 2019 when he woke up and found the head of his penis was swollen well beyond its normal size, and his foreskin would not pull back.
His first reaction was denial and desperate hope that it would go back to normal. But it didn’t heal, and things went from bad to worse as it began to bleed in his pants.
He says: “When I had the bleed I decided I needed to go get checked.
“I’d Googled it and all the symptoms fit penile cancer, so I asked the doctor if that was a possibility.
“He looked me in the eye and said ‘You’ve got a lot of the symptoms but you’re 26 – I’ve not known anyone to have it that young. It just can’t be’.
“When a medical professional tells you you don’t have cancer, you don’t question it, you celebrate.
‘Mistakes were made’
“To have been fobbed off because of my age winds me up, but it’s such a rare cancer that I do understand why mistakes were made.”
He was prescribed a cream for what the doc thought was a bad case of balanitis, a condition that causes the foreskin to swell and become painful, and may lead to discharge, bleeding and a bad smell.
Steven was signed off work and pressed ahead with the steroid cream for three weeks.
But the pain, bleeding and smell got worse with every day.
“The pain was like a needle poking the end of my penis on repeat and there was no respite,” he remembers.
“The only time I wasn’t in pain was when I had a warm bath, so I ended up having five-hour baths every day and I was rocking back and forth from the pain.”
The crisis came to a head when he woke up after fainting, sitting in a pool of his own blood, pouring from his penis in his brother’s car outside Morrisons.
His brother rushed him to A&E where Steven was given the shocking diagnosis of penile cancer that day.
The pain was like a needle poking the end of my penis on repeat and there was no respite
Surgeons were forced to operate to remove the tumour and save his life.
The cancer was so aggressive that he ultimately had to have half of the length of his penis sliced off, including the head, medically known as the glans.
Doctors managed to save enough tissue to leave him with a decently sized and still functioning organ with a hole to pee and ejaculate from, although it looks very different.
Penile cancer is mostly related to age – a third of cases are among over-75s.
Cancer Research UK says six in ten cases are linked to the HPV virus, which infects up to nine in 10 people at some point in their life without symptoms.
The virus is transmitted through sex, including oral sex, and though usually harmless, some types can lead to cancer over time.
The UK’s national HPV vaccination programme for boys (started in 2019) is expected to reduce these numbers significantly in future decades.
Rock bottom
About a third of penile cancer cases are genetic and cannot be explained, according to CRUK.
If caught early, some tumours can be treated with creams, laser therapy, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
But in severe cases, surgery is required to cut out the cancer and remove part or all of the penis.
For a healthy man, the idea of a “removal” or “amputation” downstairs ranks somewhere near the top of the nightmare list.
But Steven says: “When they told me they were going to take it off I was celebrating because of the pain I was in. I wanted them to remove it all. I didn’t care what they did as long as I was pain-free.
“After it had happened, it was different and I kind of went into protection mode and made jokes about it.
“I was told I was probably not going to survive, so that was the focus. I only realised afterwards that I was put on palliative care – the NHS thought I was dying.”
But it was being told that he would survive that hit Steven hardest.
When they told me they were going to take it off I was celebrating because of the pain I was in. I wanted them to remove it all
“That was my rock bottom,” he says.
“People will wonder how being told you will survive can be your rock bottom.
“I hadn’t had to deal with it because I wasn’t going to be here any more, so suddenly being told I would survive, I realised, at 26 in the prime of my life, that I was going to have to live the rest of my life with half a penis.
“We were driving to the Trafford Centre to celebrate and get some food and everyone around me was in such a good mood, but I just stared out the window feeling lost. I was lost for a long time.”
Steven says he has now, years later, come to terms with what happened and accepted himself and his new body.
His mates still crack jokes, charging him with having “the most famous penis outside of porn” after an appearance on daytime TV. Romance is back on the cards, too.
Steven is currently single but has had relationships since his op, including the one that led to the birth of his son who is now four years old.
The fact he was conceived naturally stunned doctors, who two weeks after his amputation demanded he produce a sperm sample – under the supervision of a nurse to check for any post-op bleeding – in a bid to preserve his fertility.
It turned out to be an unnecessary, yet traumatic experience.
“After they cut half my penis off they told me to go to a sperm bank and play with myself, and I had a nurse standing right next to me watching in case I bled,” he says.
“I completed the mission but I thought I was dying and felt like I was being paraded like a zoo animal in my last moments on this planet.”
Timing is key
Steven also reckons he is one of few men who can claim to have lost their virginity twice – once with his old penis and once with the new one.
The NHS left him with four inches in length even after half was removed.
He even makes the bold claim that his love life has improved since the drastic surgery.
Steven says: “I’m lucky that I was heavily blessed and I still have more than enough to work with.
“Dating and relationships have switched completely. I used to be all about ego, but now it’s a lot more connected and intimate, and actually being open with your partner is a lot better.
“Intimacy is a lot better for me now. No woman has ever had a problem with it. The big learning has been that men care more about the penis than women do.
“We get so bothered about the size, but if you just listen to your partner and what she likes, you’ll be a lot better than the people who are like I was pre-cancer.”
He is over the moon that people are watching his videos on social media (StevenHamillStories on TikTok) – but admits strangers’ curiosity sometimes tips over into the weird.
I was offered £500 for a picture of it the other day. I’ve had a lot of people asking for my OnlyFans link
Steven added: “I was offered £500 for a picture of it the other day. I’ve had a lot of people asking for my OnlyFans link.
“If I wanted to make a quick million, I could, because even straight men want to see what half a penis looks like. But it’s not what I want to do.
“If I can create a space where people go to listen to real stories, not just mine but other people’s as well, to help them get out of that rock bottom place, I’ll be over the moon.
“My message to men is if you are experiencing something in that area, don’t be afraid to speak out. It’s nothing you need to be afraid of.
“Don’t leave it too late because with penile cancer, it could be one week that determines if you survive or die, or you have a circumcision or you lose half or all of it.
“Timing is key – if you experience anything at all, go get it checked immediately.”
PENILE CANCER: NEED TO KNOW SYMPTOMS
A growth or lump that has not healed within four weeks
A rash
Bleeding from the penis or under the foreskin
Smelly discharge
Difficulty pulling back the foreskin
Change in colour of the penis or foreskin
The NHS urges men to see the GP for these symptoms, or changes to how the penis looks, and not be embarassed.
There may be a more common, less serious condition that can be treated.
